Several years ago, I heard a message by Charles Swindoll in which he used the phrase "tyranny of the urgent." He was specifically referring to Christians who spend their lives going from one crisis to another. Organized lives with ample time for prayer, Bible study and friends are little more than a dream.

Pastors and other church leaders experience the tyranny of the urgent as much as any group I can think of.

Before I sensed God's call to vocational ministry, I would envy the large amount of time I believed pastors had.They could spend their days in hours of prayer and Bible study. Oh, they might have an occasional wedding, funeral or hospital visit, and they would have to prepare sermons. But for the most part, the pastor's time was hours of spiritual retreat.

Wrong!

A church leader feels considerable tension in time management. On one hand, they are often expected to be directly involved in time-consuming, one-on-one ministry. On the other, such ministries dilute the time available for outreach and equipping ministries.

Many church-growth books indicate an inverse relationship between leaders who minister and the growth potential of the church. I would agree that prospects for church growth are not as good for the leader who literally wears himself out meeting the needs of every church member. Yet I would not carry that principle to the opposite extreme. A leader of a church who does little or no personal ministry is setting himself up for major problems in the future.

Managing the amount of time spent on equipping ministries for church growth versus personal ministry that builds trust and credibility is a source of tension. The leader of the church who decides to devote almost all of his time in equipping ministries will soon hear the complaints: "He doesn't have time for us"; "He cares more about growing a church than ministering to his members"; and "He is not a very warm person."

Church leaders will never resolve the problem of this tension. They must learn to live with it. Balance and good time management are keys to living with the tension. Let's take a look at some basic time management tools.

Keep Track of Your Time

How important is keeping track of your time? Management guru Peter Drucker says it is something that deserves strict attention.

"Everything requires time. It is the one truly universal condition. All work takes place in time and uses up time," Drucker says. "Yet most people take for granted this unique, irreplaceable and necessary resource. Nothing else perhaps distinguishes effective executives as much as their tender loving care of time."

Do you know how every minute of your day is spent? Have you ever kept a time log for two or three days? Did you know that you can change your behavior just by recording your time? Are you spending adequate time on those areas which are most important to you and God?

Become a Better Steward of Time

In my years of church consultations, I have seen one particular area that consumes large chunks of a leader's time: hospital visitation. Pastors in small towns and rural areas often must travel to other cities to visit their hospitalized church members. City and suburban pastors often find themselves going from one section of the city to another.

In this area of ministry and others, church leaders need to plan their day carefully. Except for emergencies or life-or-death situations, a few minutes with each hospitalized church member are adequate. In fact, a sick person usually welcomes a brief visit.

One church consultant listed the most common time wasters for ministers. See if you can identify with any of these: "television, reading the newspaper, running errands others could do, self-imposed interruptions (studying and finding something else interesting on your desk), no to-do list, opening useless mail, over-preparation, handling mail or paper four to five times, driving, unstructured visitation, not having clear directions, spending too long visiting, work overload diminishing output, ineffective reading habits, telephone, not getting up early enough and procrastination."

Can you make improvements in any of these areas?

Establish Priorities

If the "tyranny of the urgent" is one problem for ministers, "captivity by the mundane" is another. How many hours do we spend each week on tasks that are relatively unimportant?

Charles Schwab, then president of Bethlehem Steel, brought in management consultant Ivy Lee for one primary need: to help him discover how to get more done in the same amount of time. Lee took a 3x5 card out of his pocket and gave it to Schwab.

"I want you to write down the things that need to be done tomorrow, in the order of their real importance," Lee instructed Schwab. "When you come to work tomorrow, I want you to work on number one until it is completed. At the end of the day, write a new list. Try this system as long as you like, and then have your staff try it. Evaluate this activity, and send me a check for what you think its worth."

In a few weeks Mr. Schwab sent Mr. Lee a check for $25,000! Such may be the value of establishing your priorities.

In part two of this series, we will look at three more tools that will help you evaluate and better manage this all-too-important limited resource. Until then, discover where you may be losing one of your most important assets.

Editor's note: Because of the Christmas holiday, this two-part series will continue the week of December 29.